The Tales of the Dragon
by carlos olivera
Summary: Year 0082 A new Intermiddle championship is about to begin, and Vivio and the others are ready to give their best. But a sinister menace is coming for them, while the most obscure and powerful secret of the ancient Belkan Unification Wars is ready to come back to life.
1. MEMORIES

**_Notes._**

 ** _Hi to everyone._**

 ** _This is not my first nanoha's fanfiction, but i've decided to stop the previous story and start this new one._**

 ** _I know that Vivid is not finished yet, but I wanted to wright this fanfic so strongly that I couldn't resist.^^_**

 ** _I ask sorry for my probably not good english, but I'm Italian so this isn't my mother language._**

 ** _I hope you'll enjoy._**

 ** _Carlos Olivera_**

...

I

MEMORIES

Leaden and poisonous clouds crossed the red blood sky, while on the opposite sides of the desolate plain once called Camlann, crown jewel of the glorious kingdom of Camelot, two huge armies were appearing.

The air was permeated with the smell of blood, sinister calling from some other battlefield thanks to a dry and arid wind.

The young man with long black hair and a beautiful appearance, leading the smaller but seemingly better equipped army, turned his eyes toward the center of the enemy ranks, finally meeting the eyes of the two young commanders, a boy and a girl, at first glance of his own age. He looked fair and almost feminine, with thick silver hair, she instead was little more than a child, with her left arm almost completely covered by a massive but elegant golden shield resembling an angel wing.

At his side there was a woman, as young as him, wielding a most strange weapon, almost a cross between a cavalry spear and a scepter, conical at the end and almost as long as her; as his companion, she was wearing a silver armor, and had her flowing hair blacks elegantly in a bun behind her head.

Next to the two there were at least fifty warriors in armor forming two mighty wings, powerful and vigorous like no one else in their army, each one armed with a sword different in shape and kind.

The boy stretched his right arm, and as he opened his hand a huge and beautiful sword, with a bejeweled handle and the blade as much translucent as a mirror, appeared in a spark already tight around his fist.

When he held it high and pointed it at the direction of the enemy, immediately his whole army moved to attack; even the opponents charged, and as the two armies clashed into each other a deafening roar echoed through the valley.

The battle was terrible, with hundreds of casualties on both sides; soldiers in armor were fighting each other face to face, maiming and mutilating their bodies with powerful swings of their blades, while behind them the archers threw clouds of arrows and sorcerers tore the skies apart with such powerful spells that each time whole batallions were swept away.

Bodies fell upon bodies, and the land turned red.

In the end, as if no one else had remained alive, the two commanders were face to face, and screaming to gather their courage threw themselves against one another, initiating a thrilling, yet horribly bloody duel.

Each of the two always seemed about to overwhelm the other, but without a real and complete winner, and in the end, almost to sanction an inevitable draw, their swords collided with devastating force.

The impact produced a spark, that as a lit fuse in a room full of gasoline produced first a flare, and then a blinding, all-consuming explosion that, like a rapidly enlarging dome, as fast as the speed of sound inevitably and inexorably engulfed everything and everyone, leaving behind nothing but ash.

...

Carim closed the book that had livened up for her that brief moment of quiet, trying to evoke in her mind the images she had just read.

It was from the most ancient of times that Camelot's history had assumed the characteristics of a myth, and even after thousands of years no one knew for sure what had caused the collapse and the sudden disappearance of one of the most powerful and ancient of Belka's kingdoms.

The only certain thing was that, after having miraculously been able to repel an invasion attempt by the entire alliance of the Saint King, expelling the forces of Shutra from its island, the kingdom had ended up falling under the blows of a civil war between the legitimate ruler, the legendary King Arthur, and one of his most trusted knights, Sir Mordred, at the end of an exhausting conflict that had brought Camelot to ruin.

The sounds of a struggle drove such thoughts away, and approaching one of the open windows of her study, the young woman turned her amused gaze to the courtyard below, where Vivio and Einhard were raising hell trying to overwhelm Sister Chantez.

The beginning of the new Intermiddle was barely two weeks away, and all the girls were working hard to be prepared for that important event, eager to repeat, and if possible exceed, the previous year's performances.

"Your majesty is not doing too bad," said an amused Chantez. "You have improved a lot in these recent months."

"And you have not seen anything yet. Einhard-chan? "

"I'm ready!"

The two girls ran together toward Chantez, separating at the last moment and climbing on the cloister's columns before jumping towards the nun from opposite directions.

"Not bad. But as they say ... the one who plays with fire is going to get burned!"

After loading a cartridge, the nun began to wildly rotate her two tonfa, generating a couple of flaming whirlwinds that rose up in both directions forming spirals.

"Burning Tornado!"

The two girls, although surprised, managed to barely avoid the flare-ups, but when they got to the ground they found out that their opponent, taking advantage of the situation, had split into three bodies.

"The odds of the game have changed," the three said together. "Now the nuns went ahead."

One of the three then disappeared, reappearing one moment later behind Einhard ready to strike.

"Einhard-chan, watch out!"

Vivio tried to help her, but anoter Chantez stopped her dead in her tracks, although her friend still managed to dodge the attack by going low and then, as she turned, to respond adequately.

"Hao Danku Ken!"

A single, well-placed shot and the clone Chantez turned to dust, and also for her accomplice facing Vivio things quickly worsened. The little girl dodged the first two blows by moving, then, found an opening, she dealt a single powerful blow.

"Accel smash!"

The clone tried to defend itself with its weapons, but the punch was so powerful that it crushed the tonfa, and at that point for the second doublet there was no escape.

"Jet Step!"

Lightning fast Vivio crashed into the real Chantez, who barely managed to see her coming before finding herself with Vivio's fist leaned on her nose.

"I… I give up…" she said stammered, before falling on her knees. "You both improved incredibly in those last months. I can barely recognize you".

"We trained a lot," smiled Vivio. "Right, Einhard-chan?"

"Y ... yes ..." she answered, shy as always

"In the next Intermiddle we want to do our best."

"By the way, have you already received the information about the groups?"

"Not yet." said Einhard "They should arrive by the end of the week."

"I suppose that Corona-chan and the others too will be in the game."

"Certainly," said Vivio. "And they cannot wait to start. Even Miura, Viktoria-san and all the others have signed up. "

"Good to know!" Chantez growled, her eyes burning. "I hope to face that haughty Viktoria again. I have some unfinished business with her."

"Meanwhile, tomorrow we leave for a retreat," added Einhard. "We'll meet up with Lutecia-san again to prepare ourselves for the tournament."

"A good thing. But be careful. This year I still intend to go all out and win!"

"And we'll do the same!" Said Vivio.

Carim smiled, seeing again in those girls the best side of magic.

If only the world had always been in the hands of people like them, perhaps Belka would never have fallen, nor so many people would have had to suffer.

She was about to close the window, when an unusual gust of wind made the tents flutter, scattering into the room and out of it all the oracles that the abbess had recently written down thanks to the annual lunar alignment.

One of them slid to the floor right at her feet, and believing it could be a harbinger she picked it up to read it.

But what she saw did not seem to indicate a particularly benevolent future.

...

 _Red clouds shake the cobalt skies_

 _High in the horizon, the dragon cries_

 _The one holding all and nothing to the heart will listen_

 _And hate he will gather, strong and pristine_

 _Endless pains shall be spread_

 _When the dark vessel its curse will shed_

 _Only dispersing the anger and hate_

 _The victorious Dragons will show the new fate_

...

Not exactly a good prediction.

Carim felt a strange chill in her back, a familiar and unpleasant sensation.

It was not the first time it happened, and it always had been a harbinger of doom. She didn't know why, as at other times after all, but she felt that it would not take much to understand the meaning of that premonition.

...

Arthur stared, only apparently detached, at his sister's Jamie motionless face, gently surrounded by her long and blacks hair falling on the pillow of the hospital bed where she laid, connected to an endless number of medical devices.

At his side, a folder in his hand and a holographic window open at his side, a young but reputable silver-haired doctor, whose eyes, gray and sharp, were partially hidden behind a pair of rectangular lenses.

"I'm sorry, my friend. We have done everything possible.

But the last treatment too has been useless."

"It cannot be over, Meinz" the boy hissed through clenched teeth. "I refuse to accept it. There must be something else we can do."

"Arthur, you cannot deny the truth anymore. The illness of your sister is not physical or magical. It's in her mind."

The young man clenched his fists even more.

"Why? Why did it happen to her and not to me? "

"It was just a coincidence. You are twins, it could have happened to one or the other. But it went this way. You have for the most part inherited your ancestors' powers, and Jamie their memories instead. But now those memories are killing her, because her body is rejecting them.

The more those memories bear on her conscience, the more it fades, until the mind of Jamie will die, leaving only an empty body. "

Arthur hit the wall of the room, managing to make a small crack, and making the doctor jump up in fear.

"I promised to my dying parents that I would protect Jamie at all cost. May a curse strike me down if I won't keep that promise.

She's my sister, and I will do everything I can to save her, even at the cost of my own life."

Dr. Meinz looked at him completely stunned, remaining silent for a long time and listening to that young man's sobs, then he took off his glasses, putting them in his pocket.

"Maybe ... maybe there's still a solution, after all."

Hearing these words Arthur seemed to come back to life.

"What are you talking about?"

"It's an unorthodox method, but at this point it could be the only chance to save her and find a solution to the problem of these dormant memories."

"Even if there's only one chance in a million, you must do it."

"You're misunderstanding, Arthur. You'll have to do it. Not me."

"I'm ready."

Put his glasses again, the doctor became serious, almost menacing, glaring at Arthur with a cold glare.

"There are people who might not appreciate what you are being called upon to do. So, before I talk, tell me this.

How far are you willing to go for her? How much mud and hate are you ready to take upon yourself to give your sister a very small, perhaps insignificant hope of salvation? "

Arthur shuffled, apparently undecided.

But in the end, a flaming, and somewhat menacing fire appeared in his eyes.

"What must I do?"

...

For Caro and Erio it was a special day.

The day's schedule only included a quick inspection of the farms and civilian facilities near the headquarters of Carnaaji where they had been assigned only recently, so at lunchtime their work duties had been already carried out.

So, taking advantage of the situation, the two had saddled up again on Friederich's back and had reached Lutecia and Megane in their cabin for a leisurely lunch.

"So, this year you've decided to enroll too," said Megane to Erio, while Caro after having finished her lunch was flying again with Friederich around the mansion to let him blow off some steam, observed not without envy by Lutecia.

"Yes, at the end Lutecia-san convinced me. It could be an interesting experience to improve myself."

"You had to sign up for the beginners' class, right?"

"Luckily I did not have problems to climb it."

"It will be an interesting tournament, no doubt. Lutecia is nothing short of thrilled and cannot wait to start. "

Meanwhile Caro was about to order to Friederich to get back to the ground, when suddenly, for no apparent reason, the dragon began to double over furiously, at the same time bellowing loudly to the sky.

"Friederich, what's wrong with you?" asked a shocked Caro trying to control it

As if trying to unsaddle her, Friederich first climbed quickly, then he dove to several hundred meters, over and over again, all of this without stopping squirming.

"Stay, Friederich! Stay!"

From the terrace of the chalet Megane and Erio quickly noticed what was happening, remaining equally appalled.

"Caro!" Said Erio

"If this goes on she'll fall for sure!"

And indeed, in the end, Caro lost her grip, and she was so shocked that she didn't instinctively cast a levitation spell.

Fortunately, Lutecia's reflexes were better than hers.

"Wind Net!" she exclaimed, and a series of windy carpets formed in succession under the girl, gradually cushioning her fall till the ground.

"Caro, are you all right?" asked Erio running towards her

"I ... I think so." she replied, rubbing her head.

Shortly after Friederich too returned to the ground, or rather he slammed against it flying randomly without control, but he was still so nervous and disturbed that Lutecia had no choice but to cast a spell that covered him in chains, pinning him to the soil.

"But what's the problem with him?" asked Lutecia herself

"I don't know, he never acted like this before."

Only then everyone noticed the strange red light in the dragon's eyes, and only when, slowly, that light began to fade away Friederich finally seemed to come to himself, regaining self-control and meekly allowing Caro to approach him.

"Friederich, what happened to you?" asked worried the girl, receiving in response a yelp of pain and sadness.

...

But it wasn't just Friederich.

At the same time on Alzus too, the trainers' home world, and as well on an untold number of other worlds, the dragons began to show the same signs of madness, in some cases to the point of forcing their riders to take them down for their sudden and unexplainable aggressiveness.

No one was able to understand the reason of this.

The wave of madness also reached a pleasant wooded plain of a distant world, where a young, blue-eyed woman with long blond hair, intent on chopping wood in front of a humble hut, looking up as seized with a sinister omen noticed, beyond the mountains in the distance, the sudden onset of an enormous column of light, that rose up to pierce the clouds and reach the infinite universe.

"Arthur ..." she whispered. "What have you done?"


	2. 13 SECONDS

**_Notes_**

 _Hi everyone!_

 _Following the events showed in Vivid Strike, I decided to rewrite this chapter and make a few changes to the story, in order to adapt it to the new series._

 _The most important changment is that the story has been chronologically moved from the year 0080 (since it's the same age of Vivid Strike) to the year 0082, one year later the events of Force._

 _There's been other little changes, but despite this, since the concept is completely ready and too big changments would be quite difficoult to make, there will be no big references to Vivid Strike! apart for some quotes, neither Fuka or Rinne will make an appearence, even if I'll try to justify this fact during the story._

 _See you soon!^_^_

* * *

II

13 SECONDS

Like the past year, Vivio and her friends had decided to celebrate the last night before the tournament with a big party, once again in Nanoha's house.

But this time there were also all the other competitors that Vivio and Einhard had gotten to know during the last competition; other than Miura there were also Miss Viktoria, Miss Mikaya and Sieglinde, but also Corona and Rio.

"Cheers!" said Vivio with her toast and opening the celebrations around a table prepared by Nanoha, Fate and Hayate.

Two days before the preliminary groups had been finally announced, and by viewing them one could say that fate had been kind to some of them but incredibly ruthless to all the others.

In order to make for the biggest show possible out of the tournament, from that year all the 256 participants of all the districts of Mid Childa taking part in the Intermiddle Summer Cup will have fought each other in one big challenge, gathered in four large groups marked from A to D.

Each group would have its own course, and when the winners of each of them would emerge, they would challenged each other in order to choose the new world champion, in addition to taking part in the final inter-dimensional tournament to see who was the best among the bests.

Vivio and Miura, respectively assigned to the groups C and D, were certainly the luckiest; in Group C in fact there were only Lutecia and Hallie, while in D, apart from Miura, there were only Chantez and Erio.

But the most competitive of all was surely Group B, where instead, thanks to a curious and somewhat ironic twist of fate, almost all the girls had been assigned: in addition to Einhard there were also Viktoria, Sieglinde, Fabia and Rio, although fortunately none of them had been pitted against a friend for the first match.

The list ended with Corona, herself too very lucky, with only Els and Mikaya sharing with her Group A.

"It will be a tournament even more exciting and harsher than last year's one, I'm sure of it!" said Hallie, the most hyped about it.

"Plus this, with the new rules, the level has substantially increased" said Viktoria

"By the way" asked Nanoha. "What exactly has changed with the new rules?"

"Speaking of the battle rules, there's been quite few changes." Said Vivio. "The important thing is that the maximum age to partecipate has been raised from 19 to 21 years, and this is the reason for which even Viktoria and Sieglinde has been admitted. Plus this, unlike the past, qualifying matches had been held during the last six months, and was reserved only to the ones which have never taken part to the tournament. The winners of the four groups will fight each other for the title of World Championship, but all of them will be automatically admitted to the Interdimensional Tournament."

Just then Rio noticed that Viktoria had opened a virtual window, remaining almost captured by the picture she was looking, probably a few years old one, representing her together with of a boy about her own age, with dark hair and a deep gaze.

"Who is he?" she asked, adding mischievously: "Your boyfriend?"

"It's odd that you are asking me about him." she replied. "If you'd like to know, he will be your first opponent.

His name is Arthur. Arthur Aygren Pendragon, the last heir and current head of the Pendragon Dynasty. "

"The Pendragons!?" repeated Els. "Miss Viktoria, do you perhaps mean the descendants of King Arthur!?"

"Exactly. Or at least that is what most people think. In truth, no one can say for sure whether the current Pendragon dynasty really descends from King Arthur.

What is certain though is that, like my family, they're part of the highest nobility of ancient Belka.

We often trained together when we were in junior high school. Three years ago, when his parents died, he and his sister Jamie moved to one of their many estates in another world, and since then we did not see each other. "

"Is he strong?" asked Vivio almost hopefully.

"What do you think? If I remember correctly our score is fifteen wins apiece and zero draws. "

"He managed to beat you fifteen times!?" said Hallie. "But then he must be a monster!"

"His specialty is fencing, but he's also good in martial arts, and he has experience in the evocation too. In other words, he is a versatile, and sometimes unpredictable, athlete.

It won't be an easy challenge the one awaiting you, my dear Rio. "

"This just makes me more excited!" said Rio by no means intimidated.

"That's the spirit. However, I'm not worried. Even if you lose, it would mean that I would be his next opponent, and that wouldn't be so bad. I'm really curious to see how much he's improved in recent years. "

Shortly after the girls indulged in the festivities, allowing Fate, Nanoha and Hayate to huddle together to discuss an important matter.

"Do you remember the accident from seven months ago?" Hayate asked her two friends, serving them some excellent wine just arrived from Earth, and receiving a worried nod in exchange. "A warship had identified a powerful magical signal more or less at the same time when the dragons of various worlds got out of control. But even if we've been able to discover the world from which the signal has come, after all this time we weren't still able to find out the exact point where this happened. "

"What world is that?" asked Fate

"Administered World Nineteen, Camlum."

"But it should be an uninhabited world," said Nanoha. "It is a natural reserve."

"True. But there are also many ruins dating back to the Ancient Belka, some of which have not been studied or excavated by archaeologists yet. Perhaps it was from one of these ruins that the signal has come."

"Yet I don't understand how a magical signal can make dragons and wyverns crazy, in hundreds of worlds simultaneously." replied Fate

"We have harvested some of that energy, and we are now studying it . As soon as we know something, I'll let you know. "

Nanoha looked at Vivio, busy exchanging some friendly blows with Rio: she didn't know why, but she had a bad feeling.

* * *

Finallyy the day of the tournament arrived, and although for that first day only a few matches were scheduled, the Cranagan's sports hall was completely sold out.

Vivio and the others barely managed to sleep that last night, and both she and her best friends felt a strange emotion when their faces appeared on the billboards, even if only for a few seconds, and marked by the usual rounds of applause, while one by one all two hundred fifty-six athletes who had managed to qualify for that final stage were announced.

The opening ceremony was even more impressive than the previous year's one, and before noon the first matches begun.

The first ones to take the field were the athletes of Group A, and at first there were no surprises.

Mikaya immediately put things in the right direction, defeating without a hitch her first opponent, a capable magician but not as strong as her, then came the turn of Els.

"Wait and see!" she proudly proclaimed before heading toward the arena. "It will not end like last year. This will be the beginning of my return to glory! "

Her opponent, as announced by the presenter, was called Ashley D. Freichfras, eighteen, from the northern district of Mid-Childa. Physically she looked like a honest-to-good girl, with a slender but strong body that denoted a strong penchant for sports, brown hair in a martial ponytail and unusual purple eyes.

Even its barrier jacket, on which dominated light blue tones, was a mixture of elegance and comfort, and fitted with a few pieces of silver armor on the shoulders and wrists.

Walking at a slow pace, the girl walked from the tunnel to her corner of the ring, never taking her eyes away from her opponent.

In order for the two challengers to remember the new rules, the referee entered the ring to warn them.

"For the first three matches of this tournament there will be a single round, lasting five minutes. If one of the two falls from the ring, she will have ten seconds, and no longer twenty, to climb back, or she'll be ruled defeated. If at the end of the round there won't be a winner, the match will be decided by the judges. The remaining life points will not count.

All of this clear?"

"Yes," chorused the girls

"Then, go to your place."

Ashley and Els returned to their corners, and as the three-dimensional monitor above them gave the signal they immediately took their weapons; Ashley brandished a strange, and certainly unusual device for a Striker Arts' practitioner: it resembled a bow, stiff and sharp, that by virtue of its being collapsible on its three section was able to be easily folded becoming as big as a dagger.

And initially it was in that form that she chose to use it, because its sharp edges and curved meant that it could be used as a curved knife.

"Attacking frontally a barriers' expert?" said Els making countless magic circles appear. "You have to go over the basics!"

Clouds of bright handcuffs rained on her opponent from all directions, but she surprisingly managed to avoid all of them, thanks to an agility that caught Els completely unprepared, leaving her exposed to a series of blows that took away from her over 2000 Life Points in just a few seconds. And she probably would have lost even more of them, hadn't she been able, with exceptional reflexes and a bit of luck, to dodge a tremendous final kick that would surely propelled her out of the ring.

Fortunately Ashley seemed to feel the consequences of that furious assault as well, being forced to back step quickly to a safe distance when she understood that her last attack had failed, giving Els some time to recover.

"She's really fast," mumbled Els. "I don't even know how I managed to dodge that kick."

"I'm Ashley Dyane Freichfras" solemnly said her opponent, while the bow resumed its standard form in her hands. "Last descendant of Lord Edmund Freichfras and Herera Sol Kleyros, First Generals of King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table. For the honor of my ancestors and the ancient Kingdom of Camelot, I will not lose this match for anything in the world. "

"Don't be so full or yourself, this battle is far from over!" thundered Els attacking again.

Ashley dodged most of shots, but nevertheless from that point on she spent the next two minutes on the defensive, never trying in any way to fight back.

However, because of the great speed and agility of her opponent, despite all the blows thrown one after another, Els' attack proved to be quite unsuccessful, and after the fourth minute Ashley had lost "just" 4000 points.

"What's wrong with you, why aren't you fighting back?" said Els attacking relentlessly. "How can you call this a fight?"

With only one minute left, it seemed that even without reaching the end with a KO the judges' decision would be clear; despite this, Viktoria and Sieg, sitting with the other girls near the railing of the stands, were a bit worried.

"No good," said a worried Sieg seeing that her friend had begun to breath heavily. "She's wasting too much energy."

"You're right," said Corona. "But, I don't understand why that girl is not fighting back."

"Clearly that Ashley is a long range magician" said Viktoria. "Speed, agility and precision are not a problem for her, but she's not suited for a close combat like this one."

"But she attacked first," said Vivio

"It's a basic tactic," said Nanoha. "Attack quickly in order to close the match immediately. And if it weren't for Els' reflexes, she would have succeeded. But as a long range magician her barrier jacket and her defenses in general are not able to absorb too many hits. That's why she's trying to avoid to fight."

"But a magician who acts in this way," said Viktoria. "is a magician that is planning something. And that oddball is so busy trying to hit her that she can't realize it. "

And indeed, there was something that no one, not even Nanoha and the others, had noticed; namely, that since Els' onslaught had begun, Ashley, other than dodging attacks, had spent all that time to lowly recite some kind of litany, while the blue sphere set in the middle of her bow was charging up more and more light.

"Now!" she muttered at the right time.

Turning away, she stretched a lightning rope from one end of the bow to the other, and when she extended it a shining arrow appeared in her hands.

"Blind Shot!"

The apparently inaccurate shot impacted at the foot of Els, producing such a bright explosion that not only her, but even all the spectators went to blind.

"Don't think that this will be enough to stop me!" she shouted trying not to lose her opponent's position.

Struggling to keep her eyes open, when she was barely able to distinguish the outlines of her surroundings Els immediately noticed the presence of a hidden shadow to her left.

"Found you!" and she immediately called for all her remaining power. "Punisher!"

Rivers of magical handcuffs trapped the girl, binding her everywhere before she could even think to shoot a second arrow, but the sly and satisfied face of Els radically changed when she saw her opponent fading away like a ghost in front of her, leaving behind only inert handcuffs.

"What?"

"An illusion?!" Einhard exclaimed, just as shocked.

"Watch out Els, above you!" Viktoria tried to scream, but it was already too late.

As she looked up Ashley was already above her, her legs up and the head looking the ground, and in her bow there was not one, but five bright arrows.

"Infinity Arrow!"

As she shot those arrows, they became hundreds, and even more, and all together rained upon Els, who initially and with the energy of despair managed to avoid some of them. But in the end she was hopelessly overwhelmed, suffering so much damage that in a moment all her remaining life points were gone, leaving her so much beaten up that it was necessary to call for the paramedics.

"We have a winner!" said the announcer. "With an almost unbelievable comeback, newcomer Ashley Freichfras defeats her decidedly higher listed opponent and moves on to the second round!"

"This... cannot... be…" muttered Els while she was being carried away on stretchers, half conscious. "Not again…"

Despite the speed with which the action had taken place, Nanoha and the others had understood what had happened.

"Now I understand," said Fate. "During all that time, without showing it, that girl has recited a long spell, calling at the same time all the energy she needed to launch her attack."

"So that's why she was avoiding fighting," said Corona. "If she had reacted, or had lost her concentration for just a moment, the spell would have been neutralized."

"She prepared a complex spell without lowering her guard nor suffering significant blows" Nanoha declared. "That girl is really good."

Vivio, Einhard and other cadets felt a chill down their backs: she was surely another opponent to watch out for.

* * *

The schedule followed a "relay" progression, with the matches of the various groups that, at least for the first round, were fought alternately; so, when the first sixteen meetings of Group A finished, it was time to move on to Group B, and here too the predictions, at least for the first time, were followed.

Fabia took the field first, shortly thereafter followed by Viktoria, and as expected both of them achieved two swift and decisive victories.

Then came the turn of Rei, which, while trying to hid it as best as she could, was feeling incredibly nervous.

She had no doubt of her strength, but she knew that, awaiting her there, was an encounter not easy at all, if only because of what she had learned from Miss Viktoria.

However, when her time came, she didn't leave her proverbial boldness, lively hopping up to and on the ring.

"And now we go to the tenth match of Group B, which will see the fight between two opponents of undoubted value.

In the red corner we have a young athlete who, although boasting just two previous appearances to the Intermiddle, gave a very good impression in last year's tournament, and who is surely aiming to provide once again a determined performance! Ladies and gentlemen, Rio Wesley! "

"Come on, Rio!" Vivio and the other shouted from the stands. "We're all with you!"

"But Rio must be very careful not to let her guard down, because she'll have to deal with a very fierce and dangerous opponent! Ladies and gentlemen, Arthur Pendragon! "

The usual scenery smoke was shot, but when it dissipated, to the astonishment of everyone including the presenter, there was no trace of said opponent.

"The competitor Arthur Pendragon is asked to quickly reach the ring, or he will be disqualified."

Then, after a few moments, the crowd heard the sound of footsteps, and finally the announced person appeared, greeted by warm applause despite everything.

"This young rookie has dominated his preliminary round, defeating all his opponents in matches that often lasted less than three minutes! Undoubtedly a tough nut to crack for our Rio!"

Curiously its barrier jacket was much like Subaru's one, adapted and redesigned to be worn by a man, with the glaring difference that the clothes, instead of white, were completely black.

Slowly, with a cold expression and looking down, Arthur reached the ring, and was greeted by Rio with a friendly bow to which, however, he did not answer.

"Very well, gentlemen! The match can finally start!"

"Good luck," sportingly said Rio assuming her stance. "Let's do our best."

"You're not one of them," was the answer, as mysterious as chilling, she received in return. "I have no need for you."

Rio, which was no saint on her own right, got quite vexed for that seemingly haughty tone, and as the bell rang she immediately went all in: she knew she was taking a risk, but she didn't want to give the enemy time to react.

"Soryu Enbu."

The two dragons of thunder and fire appeared behind her, and then aimed straight at the enemy; the young boy, incredibly, didn't move, nor did he seemed at first to even try and repel the assault, but nonetheless the dragons, just before hitting him, disappeared, as if destroyed by an invisible barrier.

But that was not a problem.

Rio, in fact, seized the moment in which Arthur could not see her to quickly close the distance, and in a few second she was already right before him; then, leaping towards him, she prepared to close the match then and now.

"Gorai Ho!"

And again, Arthur didn't move, nor did he even look up to her, despite the fact that the flames and lightning had by now thinned, as if he had given up fighting.

Then, something happened.

Rei was practically on the verge of hitting Arthur, a mighty blow that would have probably hurt him a lot; instead, suddenly, she was the one being hit by something invisible that nobody managed to see, but that, after having apparently hit her on the left side, flung her on the ground directly outside the ring, motionless.

Even the countdown proved to be unnecessary, because the appeared scorekeeper steeply fell to 0, while Rei seemed almost lifeless, with glassy eyes and a motionless expression.

"It's ... it's over!" said the announcer, shocked like all the others. "Arthur Pendragon wins! The timer shows exactly thirteen seconds, which makes this match one of the shortest in the Intermiddle's history! "

But unlike every other time, this once greeting the verdict there was no applause, but only a single, deafening silence.


End file.
